CyanogenMod was the biggest, most widely used custom Android ROM . Now, it has been discontinued, due in part to internal conflicts within Cyanogen Inc . Don’t worry, though: A new fork of CyanogenMod called Lineage OS is taking up the mantle, and it will keep most of what you loved about CyanogenMod. Read more…
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CyanogenMod Is Dead, and Its Successor is Lineage OS
Very long-time Slashdot reader Jim Hall — part of GNOME’s board of directors — has a Christmas gift. Since 1994 he’s been overseeing an open source project that maintains a replacement for the MS-DOS operating system, and has just announced the release of the “updated, more modern” FreeDOS 1.2! [Y]ou’ll find a few nice surprises. FreeDOS 1.2 now makes it easier to connect to a network. And you can find more tools and games, and a few graphical desktop options including OpenGEM. But the first thing you’ll probably notice is the all-new new installer that makes it much easier to install FreeDOS. And after you install FreeDOS, try the FDIMPLES program to install new programs or to remove any you don’t want. Official announcement also available at the FreeDOS Project blog. FreeDOS also lets you play classic DOS games like Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, Duke Nukem, and Jill of the Jungle — and today marks a very special occasion, since it’s been almost five years since the release of FreeDos 1.1. “If you’ve followed FreeDOS, you know that we don’t have a very fast release cycle, ” Jim writes on his blog. “We just don’t need to; DOS isn’t exactly a moving target anymore…” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
New submitter iampiti writes: The Document Foundation has announced a new user interface concept for LibreOffice. Users will be able to choose from several toolbar configurations including the “Notebook bar” which is similar to Microsoft Office’s ribbon. According to TDF, “The MUFFIN (My User Friendly — Flexible Interface) represents a new approach to UI design, based on the respect of user needs rather than on the imposition of a single UI to all users” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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LibreOffice Will Have New ‘MUFFIN’ UI
Slack’s quest to become a do-it-all chat app continues. The company is trotting out video calling support in the Mac, Windows and Chrome versions of its client, making it easy to see a coworker or catch up with a friend. Anyone can start a one-on-one chat, while those on paid plans can have calls with as many as 15 people at once — handy for virtual meetings where your voice isn’t enough. This isn’t exactly a revolutionary feature by itself, but Slack adds its signature emoji responses to let you raise your hand or offer approval without interrupting the discussion. You can still tell the app to default to using third-party video services like Google Hangouts, so you’re not locked into Slack’s software. The feature should reach desktop users in the “next few days.” Mobile users aren’t left completely in the lurch, but they won’t get the full experience, unfortunately. They can join an active video call, but only on the audio side. There’s no mention of whether or not video calls are coming to mobile, but that’s likely given Slack’s tendency to mirror features across platforms whenever it can. The upgrade isn’t exactly coming out of left field. Facebook already has a Slack competitor in Workplace , and Microsoft has been signalling that it’s eager to take on Slack with a Skype upgrade. Video calling could keep you from considering rival apps, whether it’s just for video chats or for a wholesale switch. Via: The Next Web Source: Slack
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Slack now has built-in video calling
“As expected, today, December 11, 2016, Linus Torvalds unleashed the final release of the highly anticipated Linux 4.9 kernel, ” reports Softpedia. prisoninmate shares their article: Linux kernel 4.9 entered development in mid-October, on the 15th, when Linus Torvalds decided to cut the merge window short by a day just to keep people on their toes, but also to prevent them from sending last-minute pull requests that might cause issues like it happened with the release of Linux kernel 4.8, which landed just two weeks before first RC of Linux 4.9 hit the streets… There are many great new features implemented in Linux kernel 4.9, but by far the most exciting one is the experimental support for older AMD Radeon graphics cards from the Southern Islands/GCN 1.0 family, which was injected to the open-source AMDGPU graphics driver… There are also various interesting improvements for modern AMD Radeon GPUs, such as virtual display support and better reset support, both of which are implemented in the AMDGPU driver. For Intel GPU users, there’s DMA-BUF implicit fencing, and some Intel Atom processors got a P-State performance boost. Intel Skylake improvements are also present in Linux kernel 4.9. There’s also dynamic thread-tracing, according to Linux Today. (And hopefully they fixed the “buggy crap” that made it into Linux 4.8.) LWN.net calls this “by far the busiest cycle in the history of the kernel project.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
msm1267 quotes Kaspersky Lab’s ThreatPost: A critical, local code-execution vulnerability in the Linux kernel was patched more than a week ago, continuing a run of serious security issues in the operating system, most of which have been hiding in the code for years. Details on the vulnerability were published Tuesday by researcher Philip Pettersson, who said the vulnerable code was introd in August 2011. A patch was pushed to the mainline Linux kernel December 2, four days after it was privately disclosed. Pettersson has developed a proof-of-concept exploit specifically for Ubuntu distributions, but told Threatpost his attack could be ported to other distros with some changes. The vulnerability is a race condition that was discovered in the af_packet implementation in the Linux kernel, and Pettersson said that a local attacker could exploit the bug to gain kernel code execution from unprivileged processes. He said the bug cannot be exploited remotely. “Basically it’s a bait-and-switch, ” the researcher told Threatpost. “The bug allows you to trick the kernel into thinking it is working with one kind of object, while you actually switched it to another kind of object before it could react.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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5-Year-Old Critical Linux Vulnerability Patched
Cortana is the star of a big new Windows 10 Insider Preview build . Microsoft says that voice control of your PC was one its “top requests, ” so the latest update now lets you shutdown, restart, lock or sleep your system using the voice assistant . You can also use natural language to play music on two apps (iHeartRadio and TuneIn) by saying “Play Drake on iHeartRadio, ” for instance. Once the music starts, you can use your voice to control playback and volume. If you request a song or genre without specifying the app, it’ll remember the last one you used and play it from that. It also lets you find a track name from any music app by saying, “hey Cortana, what song is playing?” Finally, when you say, “hey Cortana, ” from an unlocked PC that’s been idle for over 10 seconds, the app will load in a new full-screen mode, showing information like the weather. The update also includes support for 19 more games in full-screen mode with the Windows Game Bar (including Battlefield 1, Fallout 4 and Dark Souls III). You’ll also get new Windows Ink features, additional Edge extensions, a new Windows Defender dashboard, updated Narrator features, more Windows Update options and new rendering tech for Universal Windows (UWP) apps. In other words, it’s a pretty big update — check the Windows Blog for more information, or, if you’re on the Insider track, you can now get it directly. As usual, beware of the release’s beta nature and the bugs that entails. Source: Microsoft
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Windows 10 preview lets Cortana play music, turn off your PC
Microsoft’s first attempt at bringing Windows to ARM-powered machines was, shall we say, not a good idea . But perhaps the second time’s the charm. Microsoft and Qualcomm just announced that Windows 10 is coming to the next generation of Snapdragon mobile processors. And to be clear, they’re referring to the full version of the OS, with support for legacy Win32 software and universal Windows apps. It won’t be a stripped-down affair like Windows RT. Both companies are being vague about specifics, but in short you can expect Snapdragon-powered Windows 10 devices to be incredibly light and power efficient. And since those chips typically appear in mobile devices, they also have the added benefit of packing in cellular radios. As for availability, Qualcomm says the first Windows 10 Snapdragon PCs could arrive “as early as next year.” Perhaps they’re just hedging their bets, but the cynic in me thinks that really means we won’t see them until 2018.
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Windows 10 is coming to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon mobile chips
Google is rolling out Android 7.1.1 for Pixel and Nexus smartphones, including the Nexus 6, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus 9, Pixel, Pixel XL, Nexus Player, Pixel C and General Mobile 4G (Android One). You can download it over-the-air when it becomes available “over the next several weeks” or flash it yourself. Engadget details some of the new features found in Android 7.1.1: As for what you can find from a feature perspective, Google has added support for its “image keyboard” that lets you easily find and send pictures and GIFs without leaving your messaging app of choice. Google says it’ll work inside of Hangouts, Allo, and the default Messaging app. Ironically enough, the feature has been available in the Gboard iOS keyboard that Google launched in the spring, but it’s good to see it coming to more Android phones now. Android 7.1.1 also includes Google’s latest set of more diverse emoji, specifically focused on showing a “wider range of professions” for women. And it also contains the excellent app shortcut feature that originally launched on the Pixel — if you press and hold on an app’s icon, a sub-menu of shortcuts will show up. You’ll be able to quickly send a message to a specific contact or navigate to a saved location using these shortcuts, for example. They’re very much like the “force touch” shortcuts found on the iPhone, but that doesn’t make them any less useful. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Google Is Rolling Out Android 7.1.1
Netflix has been pushing out 4K content to its apps on streaming boxes and Smart TVs for awhile, but the entertainment industry’s anti-piracy crusade and some DRM limitations have meant PC users looking to stream ultra HD episodes of Bloodline have been out of luck until now. Starting today, Netflix’s 4K content is available to stream on Windows 10 PCs — but only if your machine is a fairly recent one. The catch: you’ll need a new or new-ish Windows 10 PC with a seventh-gen Intel Kaby Lake processor and 4K display to take advantage. So, your options are basically limited to the Lenovo Yoga 910 and a handful of gaming laptops and desktop machines at the moment. Assuming your hardware is good to go, you’ll also need to upgrade to the $12 monthly Premium subscription with Ultra HD streaming. Users with older Home Theater PCs are still out of luck, unfortunately. On the bright side, the new partnership with Netflix — which includes getting Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life in 4K a few days before everyone else — gives Redmond the opportunity to tout battery life improvements they’ve made to their very own Edge browser . According to Microsoft, you’ll be able to squeeze in one more episode before your battery dies if you’re streaming on Edge instead of Chrome. Of course, a Chromecast Ultra would also do the trick. Source: Windows Blog
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4K Netflix is finally available on Windows 10 PCs